Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Orabona and Stacey Sullivan said the couple took advantage of friends and family, with Eric representing both the buyer and seller, and his wife coordinating all of the loans.

Charmagne directed employees of her husband’s real estate company, E Real Estate and Loans, and fellow loan officers to falsify income and employment on the loan applications, often jotting down the names of friends’ companies, the FBI investigation showed.

In another scheme, unknown to the buyers, loans would be obtained at a higher amount than the listed price of the home, and the difference, thousands of dollars, would be paid to a shell corporation.

In some cases, that extra money would be given to the buyers as a so-called gift, with the Elegados telling them it was assistance with their first year of mortgage payments. In fact it was money from their own inflated mortgage.

It’s the buyers who “at the end of the day, lost their homes, lost their jobs, had to leave San Diego because they couldn’t afford to live here, had their credit history destroyed,” Orabona said.

“This was simply about greed.”

The real estate company made about $3.5 million on 104 fraudulent deals, the FBI investigation found.

The loss to lenders comes in around $10.5 million, and prosecutors plan to ask the couple to pay as much during a restitution hearing on May 27.

Their ability to pay is unknown. Eric is continuing to work as a real estate agent for another company, though with a soiled reputation. His wife is working as an independent contractor and caring for children part time at her church. They are living with relatives in Escondido. They are broke.

Four other employees charged in the case are set to be sentenced Friday, and others later this year.